Against Moral Progress

By |2024-03-08T19:20:31-06:00March 4th, 2024|Categories: Conservatism, Morality, Progressivism, Religion|

Morality only “progresses” as a phenomenon of gift, in which what is good and worth doing is seen as good and worth doing by a subsequent generation, which takes on the morality of their fathers and repeats it, as their own morality. But this means that progress in morality is never assured. It may not [...]

The Measure of Abraham Lincoln

By |2024-02-11T23:10:29-06:00February 11th, 2024|Categories: Abraham Lincoln, Conservatism, Essential, Featured, Presidency, RAK, Russell Kirk, Timeless Essays|

Abraham Lincoln never was a doctrinaire; he rose from very low estate to very high estate, and he knew the savagery which lies so close beneath the skin of man, and he knew that most men are good only out of obedience to routine and convention. Whatever the result of the convulsion whose first shocks [...]

Russell Kirk: Christian Humanism and Conservatism

By |2024-02-04T17:11:36-06:00February 4th, 2024|Categories: Christian Humanism, Christianity, Conservatism, G.K. Chesterton, History, Russell Kirk, Timeless Essays|

Russell Kirk was aware that others had also claimed the mantle of humanism, but in the name of secularism. The revival of Christian humanism in our time is spurred by the need to respond to the rise of this popular secular humanism and its half-truths. During a dinner conversation with Russell and Annette Kirk in [...]

Conservative Credo

By |2024-02-04T14:27:33-06:00February 3rd, 2024|Categories: Barbara J. Elliott, Conservatism, Essential, Senior Contributors, Support The Imaginative Conservative, Timeless Essays|

The conservative believes that the True, the Good, and the Beautiful are interrelated, and that all things are measured against these three transcendentals. Conservatism seeks the Truth that has emerged over time, drawing from the deep wellsprings of human experience, and builds anew on foundations that have withstood the tests of time. It fosters order [...]

Montesquieu & the Two Historical Foundations of Tolerance

By |2024-01-17T17:44:59-06:00January 17th, 2024|Categories: Books, Conservatism, Culture, Philosophy, Timeless Essays|

Westerners today ought to meditate upon Montesquieu’s admirable reflections whenever they decide to launch a war of humanitarian intervention. These reflections especially call into question the institutionalization and systematization at work in contemporary demands for international justice. In The Spirit of the Laws (1748), Montesquieu effected a revolution, one that called into question the character of Christian [...]

Permanent Things: T.S. Eliot’s Conservatism

By |2024-01-03T21:50:31-06:00January 3rd, 2024|Categories: Benjamin Lockerd, Conservatism, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Russell Kirk, T.S. Eliot, Timeless Essays|

T.S. Eliot’s conservatism is “pre-political,” offering no simple formula for the modern polity. He reminds us that even if we could have our way in the political arena we would be unable to create a perfect society, given our own fallen nature. Such a wise mixture of hope and humility is what can keep conservatism [...]

“The Conservative Mind” at 70 for Europe

By |2023-11-28T19:54:10-06:00November 28th, 2023|Categories: Books, Conservatism, Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind|

In "The Conservative Mind," Russell Kirk, the father of American modern conservatism, said plainly that America is conservative or nothing, that America is European or nothing, and that conservative ‘European’ America is the only root of and hope for America itself. At 70, Russell Kirk’s The Conservative Mind is a young book. That work can [...]

Russell Kirk’s “The Conservative Mind” for the Rising Generation

By |2023-11-25T00:16:41-06:00November 24th, 2023|Categories: Books, Conservatism, Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind|

Russell Kirk’s "The Conservative Mind" teaches us the importance of conserving our cultural patrimony and provides us with images of the customs, institutions, and beliefs that we ought to conserve. In this way, Kirk grounds us in the conservative intellectual tradition, from Burke to Eliot, that can stand against the ideologies of our age. Conservatism in [...]

Christianity and Progress

By |2023-11-19T19:02:39-06:00November 19th, 2023|Categories: Catholicism, Christianity, Conservatism, Culture, Gospel Reflection, Joseph Pearce, Progressivism, Timeless Essays|

Although Christians cannot be above the fray because we are part of it—called and commanded to love our neighbours, and even our enemies—we are nonetheless beyond the fray in the sense that we are called to something beyond it. “My own view is that Christianity is all about progress,” wrote ‘Eric’ in a comment on [...]

An Introduction to Conservatism for “Well-Meaning Liberals”

By |2023-11-15T05:47:05-06:00November 14th, 2023|Categories: Books, Conservatism, Economics, Government, Natural Rights Tradition, Political Philosophy, Senior Contributors, Thomas R. Ascik, Timeless Essays, Western Civilization|

Instead of considering contemporary political issues, or politicians, Roger Scruton attempts to rebuild conservatism by looking seriously at its past. Conservatism: An Invitation to the Great Tradition, by Roger Scruton (176 pages, All Points Books, 2018) In his Conservatism, An Introduction to the Great Tradition (2017), long-time Anglo-American conservative champion and author Sir Roger Scruton says [...]

Russell Kirk & Pope St. John Paul II on the Redemption of Man

By |2023-10-22T07:38:12-05:00October 21st, 2023|Categories: Catholicism, Christianity, Conservatism, Faith, Featured, Hope, Imagination, Russell Kirk, St. John Paul II, The Imaginative Conservative, Timeless Essays, Truth|

Pope St. John Paul II and Russell Kirk defended freedom within the limits of truth and its authentic or right use. They knew it was crucial to distinguish license and liberty. But they have different approaches to truth. As we discussed the work of Russell Kirk, written in 1954, revised in 1962 and 1988, I [...]

The Rarity of the God-Fearing Man

By |2023-10-21T14:24:59-05:00October 21st, 2023|Categories: Christianity, Conservatism, Culture, Essential, RAK, Religion, Russell Kirk, Timeless Essays, Virtue|

Forgetting that there exists such a state as salutary dread, modern man has become spiritually foolhardy. The God-fearing man is rare. A Michigan farmer, some years ago, climbed to the roof of his silo, and there he painted, in great red letters that the Deity could see, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning [...]

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